News Release

Ferguson: Prosecutor’s “Charade”; “Oppression and Pushback”

VERNELLIA RANDALL,randall at udayton.edu
Emeritus professor of law at the University of Dayton, Randall’s writings are at her website: racism.org. She is author of the book Dying While Black.

MARSHA COLEMAN-ADEBAYO, nofearcoalition at aol.com, @nofearcoalition
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is with the Washington-based Hands Up CoalitionDC, which is organizing a series of protests in Washington, D.C. See the group’s statement and planned protests, which begin tonight. She is the author of No FEAR: A Whistleblower’s Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA. Her successful lawsuit lead to the passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). See her blog at BlackAgendaReport.org.

KAWANA LLOYD, klloyd at piconetwork.org, @PICOnetwork
Lloyd is with the PICO National Network, [People Improving Communities Through Organizing] — which includes clergy, students, artists and others. The group put out a statement on the non-indictment: “The decision is deeply disappointing, but it comes as no surprise. It is another unconscionable blow to the St. Louis community and communities of color across America who have suffered through painful patterns of police abuses, discrimination and aggressive policing tactics at the expense of human life. … Michael Brown’s body was riddled with bullets and left lying in the street for more than four hours. The police response to a grieving and traumatized community was shocking and shameful: tear-gassing peaceful protesters, selective arrests, violations of the constitutional right to free speech and assembly, pointing military-grade weapons at unarmed young people, running police cars over Brown’s memorial, using dogs to intimidate community members, even urinating on the site of the shooting. … St. Louis County Prosecutor [Robert] McCulloch took a standard process designed to protect the public by determining whether there was probable cause in a murder case, and turned it into a charade to protect Darren Wilson from public accountability.”

MICHAEL SHANK, michael.john.shank at gmail.com,@Michael_Shank
Adjunct faculty at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Shank has written or co-written numerous articles on the militarization of policing, including: “Get the Military Off of Main Street” for the New York Times.

He said today: “Ferguson is the deadly and combustible combination of state-sponsored violence and structural racism. We are witnessing similarly sinister developments in other cities, such as Detroit. Whether it’s the weapon of economic oppression or heavily militarized suppression, the terrorizing of marginalized America is igniting a revolution. The people’s protest is just the beginning of a perpetual pushback against the increasing abuse of power. And it will be felt from coast to coast and in cities big and small.”